The Forgotten One- SYOC
by NotADuck
Summary: Prince Benjamin has never had the perfect life, even as a Royal. The middle of 7 kids, he was always the over-looked one, blamed for every mistake. However, the time has come for his selection. Will he enjoy the attention of 35 beautiful girls, or will the spotlight be too much for Benji to handle. (SYOC OPEN! 0/35 spots so far!)
1. The Broken Lamp

The steady tap-tapping of Benji's pen against the giant stack of documents he was supposed to be reading was the only noise in the room. Everything else was silent. Even the clock wasn't making it's annoying ticking sounds, but then again, Sadie had smashed it to pieces yesterday. He'd have to remember to ask the maids for a new one if he ever finished this paperwork.

The neat words on the page made no sense, Benji decided, sitting back and running his hand through his blond hair. How could one simple tax cut need so much paperwork? The stack on his desk seemed like an absurd amount for what should have been an easy task. All he wanted to do was decrease the tax in Allens by two percent. It annoyed him that he had to go through so much work to do even the littlest job.

Benji wished one of his other siblings could have done this paperwork for him. But, of course, they had all figured out better motives of avoiding work than he had. Sadie and Piper, he didn't blame, as they were to young to do any actual work. But his other siblings' excuses had been hilarious. Chelsea was "reading more about the violence in New Asia". Brighton had been "out with his wife". Rosemary was "washing her hair".

When Benji thought about it, the only one with a worse excuse than me was my younger Christian. Actually, he probably didn't come up with an excuse at all. He'd always been favorite of the family, with Sadie following close behind. Chelsea, Brighton, Piper, and Rosemary all held spots below them, but way ahead of him. By far, Benji was the most under appreciated one in the family.

Benji was pulled from his thoughts by a large crash coming from outside his bedroom. Please don't let that be something expensive, he prayed to himself. He didn't really feel like making his parents more upset, and he knew he would be blamed for any spat that occurred outside his room. He got up from his desk, throwing his pen down as he did so, and crossed the room. He pulled open the door and found the broken reminisce of a highly expensive lamp shattered on the ground, and 3 very guilty looking siblings.

Sadie, who was only 5 but had figured out how to get her way by acting innocent, immediately put her hands behind her back and put on a winning smile. "Hi, Benji!" she said, in a little bit of lisp because of her missing two-front teeth.

Opposite to Sadie, Piper, who was 11, looked embarrassed. "Sorry, Benji..." she muttered, before looking down at the floor. Benji didn't much blame her, as she was the most honest of his siblings. She probably was sorry, but he was still frustrated. She and Sadie were always fighting about something, and he was getting a little tired of dealing with it.

Benji's eyes flitted away from the two girls to his brother, Christian. The 16-year-old didn't look at all sorry, and was in fact, giving Benji a haughty look. "God, Christian, aren't you supposed to be the mature one? Why are you letting them fight?"

Christian winked. "Ahh, it's all harmless Benji. Plus, I know you'll get blamed for it, so that's a plus."

Ignoring the angry look Benji was giving him, Christian called to his sisters. "Come on, girls. Mom and Dad wanted to check your dresses for the Report tonight. Don't forget, it's Benj-pee's Selection announcement. Although, why girls would sign up to date him, I don't know."

Sadie skipped down the hall, with Christian following behind. Piper stayed long enough to give Benji a sympathetic look, before she left too. Piper wasn't so far up the totem-pole that she could get away with not following her parents' orders.

Benji walked back into his room, shutting the door behind him. He crossed back to his desk, sitting back down and looking at the paperwork. His mind wouldn't focus, however. He was replaying Christian's comment in his mind.

"Who would want to date him?"

_Maybe he was right_, Benji wondered. _Maybe no one will want to date me_. But he had to believe that somewhere in all of Illéa there was a girl who would love him. Somewhere, there had to be a girl who would see inside him, and not love his brother more than him.

And maybe, just maybe, he'd get to meet her just in a few weeks.

_Please hurry!_ he thought to himself as he heard another crash. _I can't stand much more of this!_

**So, there we go, the first chapter! Yay! I know it's short, but it's just the very first of 3 prologues. I'll try to update tomorrow if I can, but I'm not sure. Then you'll get to see more of Benji, Sadie, Piper, and Christian, and meet his other siblings, Brighton, Rosemary, and Chelsea. Yah, I know, big family :)**

**So please submit OCs! I need 35 of them. There's a few rules to follow, but not too many. The form is on my profile and down below. **

**Rules:**

**1. I'm super sorry, but I can't accept OCs who are reviewed. It's just too hard to try to contact you if I need to ask about her. So please, PM me the forms.**

**2. No perfect characters (aka Mary-Sues). Yah, I do need nice girls, but make them unique! Have an interesting back-story, or personality. I just really can't have 12 girls with personality like "nice, cute, and funny". **

**3. Please don't ask whether your character will win. I will definitely tell you if she's been accepted, but I don't know who's going to win and I can't spoil the story know. **

**4. When answering the question, how would she act around Prince Benji, please don't say "he would warm up to her". As he is my character, I will choose what he does in relation to your character. Just tell me more of a strategy she has. Thanks!**

**5. Last one. Please answer the personality section in full sentences, as in the backstory section. Other sections are optional, but preferred.**

Form:

Name (Full, middle, last)-

Nickname-

Age-

Caste (2-7, but PM me if you want to do a 1 or an 8, and I'll see if I can work with that xD)-

Province-

Pre Selection Appearance (Include height and weight)-

Post Selection Appearance-

Clothing Style (Describe 1 or more dresses she'd wear in the Selection)-

Personality-

Best Traits-

Worst Traits-

Likes-

Dislikes-

First Date Idea-

Thoughts on...

King Edmund (The Tough One)-

Queen Isabella (The Trophy-Wife)-

Princess Rosemary (The Reserved One)-

Prince Brighton (The Smart One)-

Prince Chelsea (The People's Favorite)-

Prince Benji (The One With The Selection/The Neglected One)-

Prince Christian (The Flirt)-

Princess Piper (The Shy One)-

Princess Sadie (The Drama Queen)-

Backstory-

Friends-

Family-

Previous Romantic History-

Sum Up Your OC With One Sentence-

Sum Up Your OC With One Word-

**Thank you all! Sorry the form is a little long, but most should be fairly short questions. **

**PM if you have any questions! :)**

**With Love,**

**~Duckie **


	2. A Bummer of A Breakfast

**Just so you guys know, I fixed (or hopefully) fixed the glitch. Thank you all for letting me know. It was the weirdest thing! Like the box said PMs could be submitted, but they couldn't be *shrugs* I don't even know xD. But now you can! :) I think... **

**Here's Chapter 2, and the second prologue. Again, it's a little short and more dialogue heavy, but it's still kinda cute. **

Chapter 2- A Bummer of A Breakfast

Finally giving up on his paperwork, Benji sighed and leaned back in his chair. He checked his watch. It was 9:45 in the morning. His stomach growled, informing him that it wanted breakfast, but his brain screamed that he did not want to eat with his siblings. The battle raged on for several minutes, with each side having a good motivation. Hunger or sanity.

Finally, after an enormous push from his stomach, he decided he'd better risk his siblings' quarrels and head down to breakfast after hall. Pushing his chair back away from the desk, Benji stood up and moved slowly out of his room and into the hall. It wasn't that the dining room was far away. In fact, he was only a corridor down. It was that he knew that is soon as he walked into the room that his parents, or siblings, would start yelling at him for one thing or another.

But the smell of bacon and eggs wafted through the hallway, making Benji increase his pace. The yelling might be worth it if there was bacon in there. He reached the doorway to the dining hall, only to come face to face with his oldest sister, Rosemary. She nodded at him and gave a slight smile, but said nothing. That was just Rosemary, the shy, bookish one of the family. Benji wouldn't have minded, except she pushed open the door and held it for him to come in, even though he still wasn't sure he wanted to.

_No choice now_, he thought, taking the door from Rosemary like a gentleman and holding it for her. She passed, still not speaking, and made her way to the seat at the right hand side of her mother, Queen Isabella.

Queen Isabella nodded at her daughter with a smile, but dropped her pleasant nature when her eyes fell on Benji. "You're late" she said coldly, her eyes hard.

Benji nodded slightly, not daring to bring up the fact that Rosemary had just sat down and Christian wasn't even here yet. "I'm sorry, Mother." he told her, keeping all expression from his voice. "It won't happen again."

"It better not!" rang the loud voice of his father. "The Selected ladies will be here in a matter of weeks, and if you think that you are going to be late for them..."

"It won't happen again, Father, I promise." Benji said curtley, taking the seat next to his sister, Chelsea. On Benji's left was the empty seat where Christian was supposed to sit. "No one even complains about him being late", Benji grumbled under his breath. Chelsea, who heard this, giggled a little bit.

"Something funny, Chelsea?" the King asked his daughter.

"Oh, no, Father. I was just..."

She was sparred having to answer by the doors swinging open to announce the rival of the ever-late Prince Christian. He strutted in like he already was the king, even though technically the throne would pass to Brighton. As Rosemary was already engaged to the King of France, she could not reign over Illéa as had been planned. Brighton, of course, would make a much better king than Christian, but Benji still thought it was a shame that Rosemary would not take the crown. She was one of the few siblings, besides Chelsea, who tolerated him.

But, of course, no one mentioned anything about Christian being late. In the king and queens' eyes, Christian could do no wrong. Benji would have bet his finest horse that there was a string of girls who would say that Christian could do much wrong. He was not the best to his maids, let's just say.

There was soft chatter in the room as would happen when 7 children are in one room. Piper and Sadie argued about their newest dollhouse, Rosemary and Brighton were exchanging polite conversation, and Christian was talking to his mother about something "Benji" had done wrong. Benji knew that his brother blamed everything on him, but he didn't care anymore.

He was used to being the scape-goat.

He picked up his fork to dig into the plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and quince that a maid had handed him. Then Benji noticed something. The room had fallen dead quiet. His blue eyes flicked to his mother, who was observing the plate of breakfast that had just been given to her. Her eyes were harder than normal people's should be, and her lips were stretched so thin, they seemed to be little more than a line on her face.

"What is this?" she asked in a soft, quiet voice. Benji knew from experience that when his mother became quiet, it was not good for whoever upset her. She often yelled, but when she wasn't yelling, run for your life.

The maid, who looked to be only 16 or 17, started to tremble. "It's scrambled eggs, your majesty."

Queen Isabella sucked a breath in. "And, do you remember me asking for scrambled eggs, girl?"

"No, your majesty. I mean, I'm just the one who..." the girl was clearly terrified.

She was cut off when Queen Isabella stood up and slapped her.

The dishes she was carrying slammed to the ground, breaking around her. A few shards hit the poor girl, making gashes in her cheeks. She scrambled to her feet, trembling harder and blinking back tears. The Queen, acting like nothing happened, cleared her throat. "Clear the plates and tell the kitchen to bring us a proper breakfast. Now!"

The maid nodded and went obediently to collect the dishes. Benji was horrified. He'd never seen his mother act so rashly. The poor maid wasn't even in charge of cooking! He studied the faces of his siblings, wondering how they felt about it. Rosemary looked the same, but it was common for her to show little expression. Brighton was drinking water, but his hands were shaking a little holding the glass. Chelsea looked just as horrified as Benji felt, and as he watched stood up to help the maid collect plates. Piper's eyes were as wide as sauce plates, but she did nothing. Sadie looked back and forth from her mother to her father in confusion. The King pushed his plate back and reclined in his chair.

And Christian was smirking. As the maid took his plate, he whispered something into her ear which made her flush scarlet in embarrassment.

The maid reached for the last plate, Benji's. He waved her away. "This is fine, thank you." he told her, not daring to look at his mother or father. So instead, he calmly picked up his fork again and put a bite of eggs into his mouth. "Delicious!" he exclaimed to the room at large.

Under the table, Chelsea squeezed his hand lightly.

For the rest of the meal, both of them wore small smiles, to the displeasure of their parents.

**Ohhhhh snap! Bet you didn't think someone was going to be slapped! **

**Keep submitting! So far I have two! :) Yay! Again, you can PM me now, so yah! **

**Love you all!**

**~Duckie**


	3. Cause, Why Not?

**Hi guys! Hahaha, word waring with my friend, so it may or may not be a long chapter XD. But, here's the last of the prologues, and the next chapter will introduce a character or maybe two. Or three. Just adding words here!**

**Also, BENJI'S POV! GO!**

Chapter 3-

*Benji's POV*

I finished my breakfast, and exited the dining room. I was careful to avoid not looking at my mother, even though I know she was furious at me. I did, however, notice she avoided my eyes as well.

I was walking down the hall when I heard a voice. "Hey! Benji!" my sister, Chelsea, called, speed walking and almost running down the hall. I stop to let her catch up to me, as she is in heels and a dress and I'd kind of like to avoid her slipping. She's my only sibling who actually tolerates my presence.

Chelsea catches up to me and gives me a small, tired smile. "Nice move you pulled back there with the eggs. I could literally see steam coming out of Mother's nostrils."

I chuckle. "You weren't so bad yourself, Ches. I saw you help the maid. I wish I had the guts to do something like that."

"Hey, you ate the eggs and I didn't." she argues playfully.

"I think that may have just been hunger! But, either way, we are not on Mom's good books right now."

She shakes her head, but doesn't say anything. We just walk along down the hallway, until we reach the pool room. Chelsea turns to face me. "You up for a game of pool?" she asks.

I smile again, wider this time. Chels and I are both very competitive when it comes to pool, and she knows I'm not one to turn down a challenge. I turn the doorknob and open up into the room. "Game on!" I laugh.

We're stopped in the doorway by the sound of a giggle.

Chels and I both gape as we see Piper, Christian, and, most terrifying of all, Sadie sitting on the comfortable couches. They have chips and cards out, and seem to be gambling with chocolate.

"Hey!" Chelsea shouts at the trio. "What's going on!?"

I don't say anything, but my face reflects my shocked feelings. I always knew Christian was a little bit of a rule-bender, but I never thought he'd teach a 7-year-old girl how to play poker.

Christian looks up and gives up a megawatt smile. "Oh hey, Chelsea and Benji! Come join in the game. Pipes is winning, but I think Sadie's catching up."

I flush pink, and Chelsea goes scarlet. Worse than that, she starts shaking. "How. Dare. You!" she says softly, but sounding like a tiger about to pounce. I'm temped to back away, but her anger isn't directed at me, but at Christian. I sort of see where she's coming from, but I don't see why exactly she's so upset. I mean, it's a little unethical to be teaching little kids to play poker, but it's no worse than the many other sleezy things Christian does. Despite his name, he's no saint.

But something has gotten Chelsea really riled up. She looks like a bomb about to explode, all red and shaking. I actually do take a step back, because if she does blow, I don't really want to be in the splash zone.

"HOW DARE YOU!" she screams, running at Christian and grasping his collar. He doesn't even have time to react, she moves so fast. I take it back about the high heels; that girl's speedy!

Christian, backing down a little in Chelsea's strong grip, tries for his winning smile which always works so well on women. "Calm down, Chels! It's just a game, and it's not like we're playing for actual money!"

She doesn't release him, but instead draws Christian's face nearer to her own. "Sadie is 7! Piper is 11! How dare you teach them to gamble?! And, besides, it's illegal in Illea!"

Christian's face pales at her shouts, and even I shake a little. This is turning out like the great Mashed Potato Incident about a few years back.

Don't ask.

Just.

Don't.

I interrupt. "Chelsea! Compared to what he could be teaching them, it's not that bad."

Christian smiles. "Thanks Benji! I always knew you could be bribed."

My voice falters. "Never mind. Make him pay!"

Chelsea shoots me a 'you're really not helping look' before turning back to Christian. She's still got his collar, and though he's trying to pull back, she's strong. It's almost comical.

"You! You were always Mom's favorite, and Dad loves you too. But not me. I see who you really are! And for once, I'm going to make you PAY!" she screams, drawing her fist back.

It's almost slow motion. Chelsea pulls her fist back then shoots it forward, striking Christian right in the eye. There's a smacking sound, and a girly cry from Christian before Chelsea drops him onto the ground. My mouth falls open. Never once have I seen Chelsea this upset. Even she seems scared about what just happened. Her eyes flit from me to Christian, still on the ground moaning, to Piper and Sadie. Sadie is crying silently, and Piper just seems frozen in horror.

As I watch, Chelsea runs out of the room, leaving the mess behind. Not wanting to be caught, I follow her out the door, but aim to go back to my room which is farther down the hall than hers is.

As I pass her bedroom door, I can hear her crying inside.

Not wanting to get hit in the eye, I keep walking. But I wonder if it's really the right idea.

**Alright, so there's your chapter! :) I realized like halfway through that there's a LOT of violence in this story. So, AWESOME! *evil cackle* And we haven't gotten to the girls yet.**

**Keep on submitting. Everyone who has PMed me so far has been accepted, I just haven't updated my bio. I'm sorry, again, but I really can't accept girls from reviews. **

**Next chapter will either introduce a girl, or one more chapter focusing on Chelsea. I don't know yet!**

**Love you all!**

**~Duckie**


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